From lipsticks to oil filters to SUVs, Nils has successfully built and deployed predictive models across a number of industries. His successes in the field include a world first - a real time forecasting model for evaluating marketing plans for cosmetics sales. In his current role as COO for Volvo Car Mobility, Nils is responsible for Operations, Go To Market and Data Science in a company providing an alternative to car ownership. He is responsible for finding solutions to the challenges of peak demand, congestion and parking by predicting geospatial demand based on consumer preference. Prior to assuming his COO role at Volvo Car Mobility, Nils spent 6 years as analytics professional/forecaster at Oriflame Cosmetics and 2 years as a management consultant at Ernst & Young. He holds a master’s degree in engineering from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Aigul currently works as Head of Supply Chain at Burger King Kazakhstan where she leads operative and strategic management of the supply chain including materials planning, procurement strategy, supply chain structure and more. Prior to joining Burger King, Aigul worked as Supply chain Manager at Bosch Siemens Home Appliances, Demand Planner for Central Asia and Caucasus at Beiersdorf Kazakhstan, and as Supply Planner at Philip Morris Kazakhstan. She holds two Master’s degrees, one in Supply Chain from Edinburgh Business School, and one in Supply Chain Management from Moscow Business School. She is currently studying an MBA at Edinburgh.

Jan Steuber is the Director of Global Demand Planning in the Enterprise Strategy Analytics organization at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). Jan’s career at BMS has included roles in demand consolidation, market forecasting, master data management and strategic planning and decision analysis. These roles mainly support demand forecasting and budget alignment at regional and global level. Prior to BMS, Jan was at Mars Inc. and SABMiller where he held various roles in European Supply Chain Transformation, Forecasting Center of Excellence, as well as Global S&OP Design team. Jan holds a Bachelor’s in Economics majoring in Marketing from the University of Zurich and a Master’s in Economics majoring in Innovation Management from the University of Applied Science, Zurich.

Walco is currently employed at Lamb Weston Meijer as the Customer Supply Manager. In this role he is responsible for Demand Planning, Sales Inventory Planning/Safety Stock Planning and Customer Supply Collaboration Initiatives, and leads a team of 4 people. His previous roles include Demand Manager, Supply Chain Improvement Specialist and Supply Planner, all at the same company. Walco started at this global, Netherland-based food manufacturer in 2008 after he finished a Master’s in Econometrics & Management Science at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He also worked as a consultant for OM Partners whilst studying his master’s degree.

Ugo Carolyn Ogwo is currently the Head of Planning for Suntory Beverage and Food in Nigeria where she is responsible for the implementation of S&OP process as well as the end-to-end planning and management of Demand, Supply, Materials (including Raw, Packaging and Engineering Spares) and Finished Goods. Prior to this, Ugo was an S&OP Manager responsible for the design and implementation of S&OP processes across Suntory Markets in Africa, the Middle East and Caribbean . Other markets where she has successfully deployed S&OP process include Kenya, Trinidad and Morocco. Ugo started her S&OP journey in October 2011 as Demand Planning Manager at GlaxoSmithKline in Nigeria and was promoted to the role of Head of Demand Forecasting looking after the West Africa business. She holds a Master’s in Engineering from The University of Nigeria, and an MBA from IE business school in Madrid.

Mihaela is Project Manger, Demand Planning at Sibelco, where she is responsible for rolling out the demand planning process across Europe and serves as project manager for the implementation of the OM Partners forecasting tool. She has 10 years of business planning experience across 3 industries (materials, automotive and pharma) covering sales forecasting, budgeting and 5-year planning. Prior to Sibelco, she worded as EMEA Demand & Supply Specialist for QIAGEN and as Global Marketing Specialist and Global Demand Planner for Honeywell Friction Materials. Mihaela holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Marketing and is APICS CPIM certified.

Sammy is currently Benelux Demand Manager for Maxeda DIY Group where he leads supply chain organization for related categories and the implementation of ERP systems software, as well as managing the integrated supply chain. Prior to joining Maxeda, Sammy worked as Sr. Demand & Supply Planner with a focus on S&OP at Friesland Campina Belgium, as Sr. Demand Planner at Unilever, as Junior Value Added Service Manager at Eurobrokers N.V. and Export Coordinator at Ingersoll Rand. He holds Bachelor's Degrees in Expedition, Distribution & Transportation, and Marketing, from Hogeschool voor Wetenschap & Kunst University in Belgium, and holds a certification in Total Quality. He is APICS certified.

Mary Tan is an accomplished demand planning professional with over 20 years’ Supply Chain leadership experience. She has a track record of driving substantial improvements in operating performance through E2E Supply Chain Planning, Executive S&OP management and building world-class planning teams. She has held various key leadership roles in the Technology, FMCG and Pharmaceutical industries in companies such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Schneider Electric, Flextronics, Pfizer Nutrition, Cisco Systems, SCM Microsystems and HP. Her most recent roles were as Regional Director of Demand Planning and S&OP at GSK and Schneider Electric. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Murdoch University and a diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Mary is also a Certified Professional Forecaster (CPF) from IBF.

Dr. Sven F. Crone is an expert in forecasting, with over 15 years of expertise in both its theory and practice. As an Assistant Professor and the director of the Lancaster Centre for Forecasting - with 15 members the largest think tank dedicated to business forecasting - he has over 40 scientific publications with international awards for developing novel forecasting algorithms, trained over 500 demand planners, and consulted with industry leaders on improving forecasting methods, systems and processes. Sven is a regular speaker at IBF conferences, sharing insights from hands-on consultancy projects on SAP APO DP and the latest research in forecasting for FMCG/CPG, Call Centres and Energy Markets.

Eric is a predictive analytics and business planning innovator, author, and speaker. He is the Director of Thought Leadership at the IBF. Prior to this he worked as the Director of Demand Planning at Escalade Sports, Director of Demand Planning at Berry Plastics, and Director of Demand Planning & S&OP at Tempur Sealy International. In 2016, he received the Excellence in Business Forecasting & Planning award from the IBF. He is an IBF Certified Professional Forecaster (CPF) with over 20 years of experience. Eric is a visionary in his field, a frequent speaker and panelist for many executive forums and professional conferences, and has written numerous articles in publications such as The Journal of Business Forecasting and APICS Magazine. He is also the author of the books Cultural Cycles and Predictive Analytics for Business Forecasting & Planning.

Mustafa has over 9 years’ experience with global and Middle Eastern companies in various industry sectors including Manufacturing, Medical, Oil & Gas and Dairy. He currently works for Danone, a French multinational foods company where he manages the planning function with a core focus on demand and initiatives planning. Mustafa has successfully revamped the S&OP process and introduced key KPIs’ for business excellence and regular monitoring of risks and opportunities. Prior to joining Danone, Mustafa worked at Castrol as Demand and Supply Planning Manager, where his supply chain planning training resulted in setting a new record for forecast accuracy across the Asia-Pacific region. He is a contributor to IBF publications and has been awarded the star award by British Petroleum in 2015. Mustafa holds a degree with double majors in Economics and Finance from the Institute of Business Management Pakistan.

Chris works with a range of clients worldwide, across industry sectors, on strategy development, innovation and joined-up decision-making. A highly respected facilitator, Chris has a unique ability to understand and simplify complex business issues and opportunities and translate these into action. He has worked with leadership teams around the world, helping them to articulate, share and realize their strategies through aligning the organization, integrating decision-making and capability building.

Jonathon’s professional career has consisted of leadership roles in transportation, finance and health products, beginning in supply chain and demand planning roles and culminating in a vice president position in strategic planning and corporate development. He is a recognized thought leader in demand planning and is CEO of the S&OP consultancy NorthFind Management. Jonathon has been a long-term contributor to the IBF’s body of knowledge, with a specific focus on forecasting metrics and diagnostics and forecast value-add. He studied economics at the University of Western Ontario before moving to Vancouver to study law at the University of British Columbia. Jonathon went on to study operations and value chain management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Sven transitioned from customer service to demand planning in 2006, taking a demand planner role at Black & Decker. He has worked in S&OP and demand planning ever since at companies including BASF, Omega Pharma, Wolf Oil, and most recently, Petronas Lubricants where he is currently Demand Planning Manager. Here, he and his team built a Demand Planning process bridging regional HQs and EU markets to support the regional S&OP process. Sven is now member of the Global Centre of Excellence, responsible for the Demand Planning Process around the world. His focuses are aligning the process at global level, running regional capability analysis, providing global training, and executing S&OP maturity assessments. Sven holds a degree in Economics and Languages from AP Hogeschool Antwerpen, Belgium, and is an IBF Certified Professional Forecaster (CPF).

Valentina is a Supply Chain professional with a diverse background in Finance, Demand Planning, Supply Chain and Inventory management. She has a passion for developing and improving sustainable business processes. Valentina has worked for a number of well-known organizations including P&G, General Mills, ASICS, Cabot Corporation and Oakley; and has experienced Supply Chains at different stages of S&OP development. She holds an Engineering degree from the Universita’ degli studi di Pisa (Italy).

Liesbet De Munck has over 15 years of experience across different roles in supply chain. She has spent several years at AB InBev, a global drinks manufacturing giant, working in demand planning roles. Here she led a demand planning transformation project, ensuring implementation of best practices and cross-functional collaboration in S&OP. In 2016 Liesbet moved to Reckitt Benckiser to assume the position of Supply and Demand Planning Manager for the Benelux region, based in Brussels. She holds a degree in Commercial Engineering, Logistics and Operations Management from the University of Hasselt in Belgium.

Simon currently works as the Head of Business Delivery at Innocent drinks, responsible for the forecasting and S&OP teams. Prior to this, he led their Business Change team, delivering technology change group-wide. This included the transformation of the Supply Chain Planning systems and a refresh of all the end user computing infrastructure to empower the entire team to work at optimal capacity. Simon’s career has seen him complete a 3-year stint with the Foreign and Commonwealth office in the UK civil service, but the bulk of his experience is at Innocent Drinks where he has worked in a number of Supply and Sales roles. Simon holds a Master’s degree in Engineering from the University of Oxford.

Nataša started her career at Hemofarm in Serbia and has more than 16 years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical industry across various departments but primarily in Marketing and Sales. Her work history covers chief of warehousing for finished goods, analytics associate in Customer Service and demand planning coordinator. She is currently working as manager for sales and demand planning for 11 different countries. She has worked closely on SAP implementation, statistical demand forecast process implementation, and optimization of inventory. In 2011, Nataša joined the newly established Sales and Demand Planning Team within the Marketing unit, which is accountable for 11 SEE markets. She is an IBF Certified Professional Forecaster and holds a master’s degree in Technology from University of Novi Sad in Serbia.

Simone Frankema is the Manager of Strategy and Process Improvements (supply chain) at Abbvie, a global Biopharmaceutical company. Simone is located in the Zwolle, Netherlands office and has more than 10 years of supply chain experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including production planning, brand management, project management, inventory management and, most recently, data analytics. Prior to joining AbbVie, Simone spent 7 years at Abbott, working in various roles including Master Scheduler and Franchise Manager. Simone holds an MBA specializing in Operations and Supply Chain Management from Rijks University in the Netherlands.

Jordi has over 10 years’ experience delivering Operational Excellence and Customer Excellence using the basic principles of the S&OP process and L6S. He has successfully implemented S&OP for companies in the Telecoms and Banking industries and currently works for Asurion as Client Operations Manager. His career has encompassed various supply chain and logistics roles, and by working closely with the University of Tilburg, he developed an intricate understanding of System Network Dynamics, forecasting processes and the dynamics of a multi-disciplinary End to End Supply Chain. He holds degrees from Vrije University and the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands.

David is a Supply Chain Project Manager at RPC, a leading global design and engineering company in plastic products in packaging and non-packaging markets, with centers of excellence worldwide and a turnover of around £3.9bn. David is part of a business improvement team within the RPC Bramlage division and his focus area is Supply Chain transformation. He held various roles in Supply Chain management as well as continuous improvement/lean manufacturing. David holds a general engineering degree from ICAM, France and is certified CPIM from Apics.

Milan joined Hemofarm in 1996 and for the first 12 years, he was engaged in equipment and system validation activities in the QA Division. In 2008, he became a member of the Analytics Team in the West Balkans area within the Marketing and Sales unit. He was first tasked with demand planning for the Montenegrin and Macedonian markets, and after assuming a position in the Sales Team, he started sales planning for the Serbian market. Over the course of the last 7 years, he has been in charge of forecasting and demand planning for the Serbian and Romanian markets. In 2011, Milan joined the newly established Sales and Demand Planning Team within the Marketing unit, which is accountable for 11 SEE countries. He is an IBF Certified Professional Forecaster.

Luca Suriano is the Vice President of Global Sourcing for Under Armour Inc. leading the product supply chain for apparel and accessories. For almost two decades he has operated in global supply networks directly managing demand forecasting, buying operations, product development and quality assurance. Currently based in Hong Kong, Luca has worked for top tier international brands in Europe, North America and Asia.

Geoff Stamper is the Director of R&D Portfolio Optimization and Global Demand Planning in the Enterprise Strategy Analytics organization at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Geoff’s career at BMS has included roles in strategic forecasting, market forecasting, and strategic planning and decision analysis. These roles supported revenue forecasting of both pipeline and inline brands. Prior to BMS, Geoff was at Abbott Laboratories where he held roles in the discovery organization as a scientist and in the R&D portfolio management organization as a decision analyst. Geoff has a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Missouri and a doctorate in Biophysics from Brandeis University.

Thorsten has almost 20 years of experience and expert knowledge in international operational and strategic logistics and supply chain management in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, covering roles within Procurement Logistics, Material Planning, Transport Management and being Head of Supply Chain Management. As Global Manager Integrated Business Planning he was responsible for the successful transformation from S&OP to IBP and close consultant to the management of the global market leader in Pigments.

Thorsten is a passionate Supply Chain Business Partner, developing end-to-end Supply Chain strategies and concepts for Organizations, Planning, Processes and People. He coaches, mentors, challenges and gives advice to employees and peers in order to foster their continuous development and personal growth.

His leadership work is dedicated to the motto given by Mahatma Gandhi: “BE the change YOU want to see in the world!”

His positive attitude, his passion for Supply Chain and his sense of responsibility sets him apart. He is highly committed and believes in the digital transformation of supply chain and logistics, as well as in the sustainable advantages for the global economy & climate accordingly. His ideas are based on an innovative and visionary mindset and help driving decisions that positively impact customers, business targets, people and the environment. Thorsten is a certified professional forwarding agent and a certified expert in Logistics Management. He holds a Diploma in Business Administration of the University of Applied Science in Mainz, Germany. He is organizer and facilitator of the 1st IBF Chapter Germany of Institute of Business Forecasting & Planning. He is founding member of SCC Supply Chain Connect – Your Personal Transformation Partner.

Henrieta Steen joined AbbVie in 2012 and since then has worked in various functions within Supply Chain Operations. Her experience includes short term and long-term planning, supporting new product introductions, and delivering SAP software implementation. In November 2018, Henrieta moved into her current role of Supply Chain Manager, leading a team of 10 Supply Chain professionals. Henrieta holds a degree in International Business and Management from Saxion University of Applied Sciences, and a Masters degree from the University of Groningen.

Marieke Sellies joined AbbVie in 2004 and has worked in various functions in Supply Chain Operations. This varies from Customer Service to Planning related activities as well as participating in various projects relating to AbbVie’s Lead Logistics Provider, setting up regional CDC’s and organizational restructuring. In November 2018, Marieke moved into her current role of Supply Chain Manager, leading a team of 15 Supply Chain professionals. Marieke’s expertise lies in the customer service and SOX compliance area, having spent 6 years in business support roles at Abbot Logistics. Marieke holds a degree in International Business from Hogeschool University.

Gary joined QAD DynaSys in 2014 as a Business Consultant. He is passionate about enabling organizations to unlock the potential of supply chain planning solutions to support their Integrated Business Planning processes. Prior to joining QAD DynaSys, he spent 7 years in system implementation and 10 years in operational planning for various UK manufacturers and retailers. In his time, Gary has worked as Supply Chain Manager, Supply Chain Consultant, Supply Chain Analyst and Demand Planner at companies including Ford, FuturMaster and B&Q. He holds a degree in Business Studies from the University of East London and is APICs certified.

With more than 18 years’ experience in Demand & Supply Chain Planning, Gavin joined Chaucer Foods in 2013. Today, he has a dual role. He is the Project Lead for Integrated Business Planning globally across Chaucer’s three operational centers in France, USA & China. He also manages the Central Supply Chain team based in the UK, ensuring the delivery of their customers’ requirements through the effective management of capacity planning and freight delivery at a global level. Prior to becoming IBP & Group Supply Chain Manager, he worked as Demand Planner, and prior to that he spent 11 years as Inventory Control Planner at Spicers Ltd., a publicly listed office supplies company.

Enric Gomez is currently working as Global Head of IBP at Merck Group, leading the Integrated Business Planning process worldwide. During the last 3 years of the IBP journey he has delivered alignment between Financial, Commercial, Controlling and Supply. He is also leading the implementation of a Digital IBP platform providing transparency, visibility and trust across the organization. Prior to Merck, he worked at Accenture Strategy leading several S&OP implementations and Supply Chain transformation projects for multiple Fortune 500 companies across different industries including Communications, Tech, Retail and Oil and Gas. Enric holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Milan Politecnico University.

Alessandro joined Goodyear in 2010 and has worked in several areas of supply chain in project management and operational roles. In his current role as Manager Supply Chain Execution and Inventory EMEA, he is the owner of the S&OE process and the functional leader of inventory management. Alessandro led the implementation of several project initiatives at Goodyear, such as the distribution planning module of SAP. His background includes several years in consulting for multinational corporations in FCMG and Pharma including Nestle and Hewlett-Packard. Alessandro Mantione is a Computer and Industrial Engineer with degrees from the University of Pisa in Italy, and holds an Executive MBA from the Maastricht School of Management.

Sefa joined Sealed Air in 2017 as External Manufacturing & Sourcing Planner before becoming Supply Chain Planner for Europe. His responsibilities include Master planning for produced and purchased items, measuring and analyzing safety stocks in European distribution centers, weekly monthly inventory control, and forecasting. He also creates the supply plan in line with the S&OP cycle. Prior joining Sealed Air, he worked as a data science fellow and project management officer in Reply Consulting. He also worked in a ride-sharing startup as a marketing team leader, held entrepreneurial trials and developed the Shared Plate mobile app. Sefa holds a B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from Istanbul Technical University and M.Sc. in Management Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan. He is a certified MATLAB associate.

Gerd Wiesendorfer is an experienced analyst in the global agricultural machinery industry. He works for the AGCO Corporation, a leading manufacturer of tractors, harvesting machines and other agricultural equipment, with 14 main factories around the globe. Gerd is based at the European AGCO Headquarter in Switzerland and leads industry forecasting and market intelligence. In his previous position he worked at VDMA, the German Engineering Federation, as a market analyst and managed several European and global committees of the agricultural machinery industry. Gerd holds a Diploma in Marketing from the University of Applied Science Villingen-Schwenningen (Germany) and an MBA in Agriculture Management from the University Anhalt (Germany).

Martin has worked at Eli Lilly since 2007, starting as Business Intelligence Manager before becoming Forecasting lead for Canada, USA and Europe. He now works as International Business Unit Forecasting Lead. Before joining Lilly, Martin graduated with a degree in Biology at the University of Bielefeld and attained a doctorate in Molecular-Neurobiology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. In that time, he had a foreign exchange scholarship from the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes”. After a post-doc assignment at the University Hospital Hamburg Eppendorf, Center for Molecular Neurobiology, Martin worked for three years in the area of Allergology/ Immunology before moving into the forecasting/business intelligence fields.

Jakob Wolf is currently project-manager in the corporate sales-controlling department for Bosch, a German multinational engineering and technology company headquartered in Gerlingen, near Stuttgart. Jakob is also studying for a master’s degree (M. Sc. International Management) which he will complete in October 2019. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Information Systems while working for Bosch, at the time engaged in agile project-development and controlling business units.

Hadrien started his career in 2013 with a one-year contract at Procter & Gamble as Category Demand Planning Analyst where he was exposed to a very mature and well established S&OP process driven by demand planning. He stayed at P&G for the following 2 years as a Financial Analyst in various units of the company. In 2016, Hadrien joined a new biopharmaceutical company looking to implement a full-blown S&OP process, which evolved his role from Analyst to Associate Manager of Demand Planning. Here he started S&OP from scratch, securing the endorsement of executives in this ongoing implementation project. Hadrien holds a Bachelor of Science in International Hospitality Management and an Associate of Science in Management of Hotel Operations from the Lausanne School of Hotel Management. Hadrien has been CPF certified since 2018.

Akshey Gupta is a sales director for ERP with Microsoft and is responsible for the EMEA region, based in Amsterdam. He has 20+ years’ product development, ISV development and software sales experience covering the CPG, retail and manufacturing sectors. Previously, he built new Microsoft AI based solutions and developed an ISV ecosystem for Microsoft AI. Before that he led product engineering teams that shipped four major releases of Dynamics 365. Akshey has lived and worked in the Netherlands, Denmark, Singapore and India. He holds a Bachelors’ degree from IIT Delhi and an MBA from National University of Singapore.

Pietro Peterlongo is Senior Data Scientist at ToolsGroup. He develops Statistical and Machine Learning models for Demand Forecasting to be used in ToolsGroup’s Supply Chain Solutions. In his four years at ToolsGroup, he has served as lead Data Scientist in numerous projects to improve forecast accuracy using advanced statistical techniques. Before ToolsGroup, Peter worked at the University of Trento in Italy at the Laboratory of Cryptography and Coding doing research and working on industrial projects in the security domain. Prior to this, he carried out research in dynamic and stochastic mathematical methods for Climate Science at Ecole Normale in Paris and Scuola Normale in Pisa. He holds an MSc in Mathematics from the University of Trieste and a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Pisa.

Matteo has nine years’ experience in supply chain across eight different businesses in seven different countries, working for Accenture, GE, Whirlpool EMEA and more. He has worked in all areas of planning and manufacturing, in different business environment such as Engineering to Order, Make to Order and Make to Stock, and has managed different ERP implementations (Oracle SAP and Customs). This experience has provided him a sound end-to-end supply chain understanding and expertise. His current role is Supply Chain Strategy and Roadmap Leader for Whirlpool EMEA.

Geronimo Bonomi Has been working in different planning related roles for the last 10 years, over 5 different countries/Region and different industries from Hardware tools to make up and food and drinks . He joined Heineken in 2017 to work in the demand planning expert and support different markets on this field. He is current role is deployment project manager for Global S&OP CORE program.

Haythem Edhibi is a supply chain management professional with 12 years’ experience in the field. He joined Heineken in 2008 and since then has worked in several different operational roles in Supply chain Planning, S&OP, Customer service and Logistics. His current role is Deployment Project Manager for the Global S&OP CORE program. His previous work experience includes roles at Blaupunkt Robert Bosch and SONBORA. He holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from the National Engineering School, Tunisia.